


The Games We Play

by Leni



Series: Cora's Daughter [10]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Rumbelle, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 21:04:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9289505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: "Rumpelstiltskin," she greeted calmly, assuming the mantle of a queen receiving a powerful ally, "what a surprise."He glowered at her. "I'm sure it is."They smiled at each other, if smiles could also be a preamble for battle.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: What was Cora's reaction like the first time they started to mention their sex life to her face?

Cora pretended no alarm at the sight of a fuming Dark One in her rooms.

"Rumpelstiltskin," she greeted calmly, assuming the mantle of a queen receiving a powerful ally, "what a surprise."

He glowered at her. "I'm sure it is."

They smiled at each other, if smiles could also be a preamble for battle.

But neither reached for their magic, silently agreeing to keep their meeting civil - at least in appearance. Doing otherwise would give Belle reason to turn cold against the offending party, and Cora had not given up on convincing her daughter to fall in with her plans.

To make Belle queen. To give her a kingdom richer than the tiny land Maurice ruled. Her daughter deserved everything, and Cora would see her daughter on Ava's throne.

...as soon as Belle saw reason.

That girl needed to understand that breaking a deal with Rumpelstiltskin could be done, and that her pride would thank her to walk away first rather than wait until he had tired of their arrangement and sent her back.

No one expected the Dark One to actually keep her forever.

"Come to congratulate me?" she asked, knowing it was the last thing in Rumpelstiltskin's mind. He had never cared much about the politics of the Enchanted Forest, and though it irked her that he'd hidden Ava's girl away in some last ditch attempt for that ridiculous plan of his, she knew that it would have been impossible to advance so quickly into Leopold's kingdom if Rumpelstiltskin had come to his aid with his full power. "No?" she continued when he snorted. "Then what brings you here, Rumple?"

He glanced at her, impatience in his eyes, and snapped. "I don't appreciate games, Cora."

Cora gave him a steady glance.

After a beat, he seemed appeased with her lack of protestations of innocence and came closer, tilting his head with his dark eyes studying her, as if he had ever been able to read into her more than she allowed. "What do you want, dearie?" he asked at last. "Why this... insistence?"

He opened his hand, which suddenly wasn't empty any more, and a letter with her seal and signature appeared on it. 

"Can't I write to my daughter?"

"Have I stopped you in all these months?" he snarled. "But not even I suspected you'd go this far, witch."

The letter burst into flame, burning yellow before it let out a brief flare of purple and then collapsed into a scattering of ashes that drifted onto the carpet.

Cora crinkled her nose at the mess.

She tried not to think of the waste of weeks of work that had been destroyed by Rumpelstiltskin's will in an instant. She wouldn't get another chance to sneak a spell through his defenses.

No wonder he was seething.

Belle was a piece he had stolen from Cora's game board, and as such he must understand it was fair that Cora tried to gain her daughter back. But that she had fooled his wards in this last attempt...

"You try this again, and I will make sure your little army becomes as many ashes," he promised. "And then I will come for you."

Cora nodded.

It had been a risk, and it hadn't paid off. Wisdom meant to lie low until another chance presented itself. At least now she was sure that her spell would have worked. Rumpelstiltskin wouldn't have bothered to come to threaten her if he hadn't felt threatened as well. 

Perhaps the spell she had crafted was useless against Belle now, but there were other people that needed specific direction and whose hearts Cora had yet to collect. Attached to ink and paper, the spell would make Cora's suggestions seem completely reasonable to the reader, urging them to make them happen. The spell didn't last for more than a few hours, but that was long enough to, for example, convince Belle to send her mother a signal and open the gates of the castle for her visit.

Rumpelstiltskin must have set some measures to protect Belle against such influences. It made sense, and Cora blamed herself for her shortsightedness. The Dark One's lover would be an easy target, and Rumpelstiltskin's enemies could not be expected to treat Belle as kindly as Cora had planned to.

"I only wanted to see my daughter," she told him.

He sneered, but had nothing to prove otherwise.

As things stood, it was Cora’s right to find out about Belle’s new circumstances. The Dark Castle was not a place for someone tenderhearted and so unfailingly kind - and despite what people wanted to believe, despite Cora’s constant disappointment on the subject, that was precisely what Belle was. Cora knew that Rumpelstiltskin was angry with her, but she couldn't allow that to bother her. If he had not wanted her to reach out to Belle, he should have included that specification into the deal they had made when the girl left with him.

Any mother would be concerned over the fate of a daughter Rumpelstiltskin had taken away. It made sense that she would try to establish a line of communication with Belle.

Not even the Dark One - perhaps, _especially_ not the Dark One - would find fault into the actions of a parent doing reprovable things in order to contact their missing child.

If only Belle would have acted as expected and docilely invited her mother for a meeting! Cora hadn't expected that it would take more than a first letter for her daughter to obey. Instead there had been quite the interesting exchange in the last month, the tone of each missive steadily growing in sharpness. Belle wouldn't even accept an invitation to meet in a neutral place.

Distrustful child.

A distrust that, no doubt, had been goaded by Rumpelstiltskin’s unflattering opinions of her.

The man really had no idea how to let the past rest in peace.

“I can’t have hurt you this much, Rumple. When will you let it go?” she asked, giving him her sweetest smile. “Must you really turn my darling Belle against me to have your vengeance?”

Rumpelstiltskin chortled. “You think too much of yourself, dearie, if you think we waste any time talking about you.”

"What is this, then?" she asked, coming to her escritoire and opening a drawer. She took the small bundle of pages that had come with the last messenger dove.

Rumpelstiltskin looked at the papers, then at her. "I have no idea what you mean," he said with a smile.

"My daughter's so-called answer."

"You're going to have to explain in more detail." He shrugged. "I'm not in the habit of reading Belle's correspondence."

Cora laughed. Did he intend to get a rise out of her, or was he really as deluded as to believe that she didn’t know her daughter? Belle was a fearful one, always hesitant to wield any power. The source of these letters in her daughter's hand could not be the timid girl who had avoided confrontation for as long as Cora could remember. Instead it had to be her lover at work. Rumpelstiltskin would think it a great lark to convince a daughter to thwart her loving mother. “These are not Belle’s words,” she stated without doubt, waving the expensive paper that her daughter now used for her private correspondence. “I must wonder why you would dictate this to her, if not as some sad attempt to shock me.”

For the first time since their interview started, Rumpelstiltskin’s expression brightened with interest. “Shock you?”

Cora was tempted to indulge in a gesture as common as a roll of her eyes, but she restrained herself. The blame was on Rumpelstiltskin. He always did bring out the poor miller’s daughter in her, half-enamored of the wizard who taught her and always resentful that she had no real power over him. “It did not work, Rumpelstiltskin. You can’t believe I could possibly be interested in my daughter's tales of your prowess. In fact-”

He arched an eyebrow.

The letter disappeared from her hand in a swirl of magic, and returned to reality held in Rumpelstiltskin’s hand. “This I have to see for myself,” he muttered, turning his back to her and wandering around the room as he lifted the first page to his eyes. He read under his breath to himself for the first few paragraphs, then came to a sudden halt, eyebrows lifted and his lips curved into a surprised grin. “Well, well,” he said, perusing the next lines with obvious glee. “What a wonderful mother you must be, Cora, for your daughter to share intimacies with you with such... well.” He smirked. "It doesn't take much to read Belle’s enthusiasm between the lines, does it?”

He wasn't lying.

It had never crossed Cora's mind that the girl who had spent her life in Avonlea hiding in her rooms, whimpering about dark magic until she had finally learned that her complaints only gave her mother a headache, could enjoy Rumpelstiltskin's company for long. Much less in an intimate capacity.

Her mouth opened and her jaw worked, but no words made it out.

“Speechless, dearie?”

Cora narrowed her eyes at his good humor. Finally she managed a protest. "My daughter wouldn't dare speak of such things without your permission."

Rumpelstiltskin actually laughed. "Your daughter does as she wills."

That got a look of wild disbelief.

Rumpelstiltskin just lifted an eyebrow, daring her to claim again that the contents of Belle's missive weren't of her own choice. "You see, Cora. I've come to trust her, and Belle actually has done nothing to make me regret it. Indeed," he added, making a show of folding the letter with care and hiding it into his jacket, "I'm quite happy with our arrangement."

Disbelief turned into startled laughter. "She makes you happy? Oh, Rumple." Cora gave him a knowing look. "I'm sure my poor girl would believe you, especially if she really is as taken by your... charms. Not that I could blame her," she made sure to add with a sly smile that died at his unimpressed look. Her voice hardened again. "But I know you too well. Enjoy her if you must, but let's not pretend she means more than that."

Rumpelstiltskin stared at her for a long moment, lips curling into the beginning of a scowl. But in the end he shook his head, shrugged his shoulders as if letting go of an unwelcome weight. "You sent so many letters, tried so hard to overcome my protection spells to visit uninvited. I actually wondered... But you really don't care to get to know Belle, do you?"

Cora blinked in momentary confusion. "I raised the girl, Rumple. What else is there to know?"

His head tilted, and for an instant there was pity on his expression. But it quickly cleared into the unfriendly sneer that had characterized their encounters of the last two decades. "Nothing that would serve you, dearie," he told her, his voice unusually flat and earnest, "and that's all that matters, isn't it?"

The question made her frown. It wasn't like Rumpelstiltskin to ask such obvious things. "Of course," she said anyway.

He bowed to her, more a dipping of his head than the veneration owed a queen.

As that was the most courtesy the Dark One ever showed, Cora didn't protest. "Tell Belle-"

But he gave her a chiding click of his tongue, reminding her not to think their history together allowed her to make him into her messenger. 

"I'll write, then," she changed tacks.

Rumpelstiltskin nodded. "Far from me to keep parents and children apart. And on that note... Should I tell your daughter that she's allowed to visit you?"

Surprised, Cora nodded.

Unlike Rumpelstiltskin's wards, her own weren't based on blood magic. Belle would need an invitation to come through.

"My daughter is always welcome to see me," she said honestly.

Rumpelstiltskin grinned at that, rubbing his hands together. "Oh, perfect!" He gave no explanation before he disappeared from her rooms, only the echo of his giggles leaving proof of his presence.

It wasn't until several weeks later that Cora realized Rumpelstiltskin hadn't asked for permission in Belle's behalf.

 

The End  
11/01/16

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love!


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